The head of the Indiana Chamber visited Evansville Tuesday to discuss an economic report card.
Chamber President and CEO Kevin Brinegar met with local leaders about the latest report on 65 metrics in the chamber’s Indiana Vision 2025 plan.
He told WNIN News one issue that still needs attention in Vanderburgh, Posey, Warrick, Gibson, and Spencer counties is retaining bright young people.
Brinegar said most of Indiana has seen people moving in…
"But in this region of the state there was more out-migration in the past two years."
Brinegar said efforts are needed to reverse the trend in southwest Indiana…
"Maintaining and attracting younger talented people, which gets us into 'quality of place.' And we heard about challenges with regard to housing."
Brinegar noted that southwest Indiana ranks below the state on education attainment, but there’s a positive health note: the smoking rate is lower than the rest of the state.
Brinegar says the Chamber will continue to push the Indiana legislature to raise the smoking age to 21 and to raise cigarette taxes.
Brinegar says statewide, Indiana broke about even in the report card …
"We went up in 23 measures and we went down in 24. That's not as good as two years ago, when our ranks went up in 36 metrics and down in only 16."
JG